but i can only be me

Intro - Slow, heavy arpeggiated guitar - minor key, mournful

Verse 1

They handed me a map before I learned to walk

Drew the roads I'd travel, scripted all my talk

Carved a name in stone before I had a face

Built a throne of their dreams, saved me a place

Verse 2

I tried on all their armour, every rusted piece

Wore their expectations like a war that wouldn't cease

I searched inside the mirror for the man they saw

But the stranger looking back at me had his own flaws

Pre-Chorus

So tell me, what do you see

When you look at me?

Is it the ghost of a hope

That was never mine to be?

Chorus

Why can't you love the life I'm living?

Why can't you see the soul I'm giving?

I've walked your roads, I've worn your crown

I've built you up while I broke down

I've searched the dark, I've climbed the wall

I gave you everything - I gave you all

But when the smoke fades and the torches die

And all that's left is the truth inside -

But I can only be me.

Verse 3

Every father's shadow stretches long and cold

Every unspoken "should have" turns a young man old

I don't carry your failures - they were never mine

I won't bleed on an altar built on someone else's shrine

Pre-Chorus

So tell me, what do you need

From this life I lead?

'Cause I'm standing right here -

Not the man of your dream

Bridge - Faster, Major Key

I am not your second chance

I am not your broken lance

I'm not the dream you left behind

I'm not the ghost inside your mind

I am blood, I am bone

I am every seed I've sown

I am lost, I am found

I am silence - I am sound

Bridge

...And I've been trying so long to be everything you wanted.

But I looked in the mirror tonight...

...and I barely recognized myself.

Instrumental Break - Dramatic Guitar Solo

Final Chorus - Bigger, slightly slower, resolving

Why can't you love the life I'm living?

Why can't you see the soul I'm giving?

I've walked your roads, I've worn your crown

I've built you up while I broke down

I've searched the dark, I've climbed the wall

I gave you everything - I gave you all

But when the smoke fades and the torches die

And all that's left is the truth inside -

But I can only be me.

Outro

...Only me.

...Only me.